jonas bering - mustang 1966 (pch rmx) (mp3)

specialising in dreamy soundscapes and minimal dance tracks, the los angeles based sentrall records have been busy releasing some serious modern day 21st century, californian soul music...

starting back in 2001 and with only a few releases to date (eight to be exact), the hit rate for these guys is spectacular, if somewhat sluggish. the more wiser readers/listeners amongst us would've hopefully picked up on the most excellent sentrall #6 release at the back end of 2005. for any of you that have not heard 'blazer' i suggest you get yourself on over to the project sandro myspace for a listen...

unfortunatley it would seem that i, amongst many others, was part of the unfortunate mass of people who didn't manage to pick a copy up of this wonderful 12" (although i am reliably imformed that it's getting a re-press). so as a form of compensation - but by no means a poor substitute - i have posted an earlier sentrall release which beholds a project sandro remix...

'mustang 1966' by jonas bering originally appeared on the kompakt released album 'sketches for the next season'. with a more minimal and industrial feel to it, its a great track in its own right. however, with the licensing fees paid, sentrall enrolled the skills of rollmottle & tony watson (project sandro), who in turn, created a more deep, sunset orientated sound...

note: hot of the press is the new super ace, super limited sentrall 12" by hatchback. to quote their website 'get it now before its gone'...

if you head on over to our friends at cosmic disco, you will find 5 hours worth of musical downloads (yes a whole 5 hours) from saturday's best foot forward v's cosmic disco showdown. here at bff, we would like to thank all three of the cosmic fraternity for coming down, in what was a thoroughly enjoyable, if some what lucid, evening. to find out what happened when our powers combined, i suggest you get yourself on over there...

a mountain of one - brown piano (sample) (mp3)

well, it seems that the guys from a mountain of one enjoyed our company so much that they’ve been nice enough to provide a little taster of 'brown piano', which will be their next release sometime towards the end of august. the track opens with a dreamy piano-led introduction, which eventually breaks down into a motorik riff with an ethereal female vocal riding occasionally over on top. the mp3 sample above comes from about 3 minutes into brown piano’s 8:20 running time, and tails off just as the track breaks into a step-wise descending chord progression reminiscent of the magnificent 'i am the walrus' which is sure to blow your head wide open.

and if prospect of getting your hands on the full version of this hasn’t got you salivating already, you might like to know that when it surfaces it''ll be backed by a remix from new cosmic kids studio, who we're quite certain you'll be hearing a lot more from very soon …

this is some super-exclusive hot-of-the-presses business, so remember, you heard it here first – literally!

automat - the rise, the advance, the genus (mp3)

back in 1978 romano musumarra and claudio gizzi concieved, arranged and played all the music on their self titled 'automat' album. using a mcs-70 synthesiser, the album was created around the concept of the 'machine', and the dependency of the human on such machines. a little deep i know, but with tracks like 'droid' and '(the) rise (the) advance (the) genus', this is an album that is extremely well recognised within the italo and electro quarters...

one of the main pioneers of the posted track is i-f - the head honcho of influential label viewlexx. in the booklet to his excellent tangent 2002: disco nouveau album, i-f lists his top 5 influential italo tracks of all time. as well as some ridiculously rare (and expensive) early 80's tracks, the primtive electro sounds of '(the) rise (the) advance) (the) genus)' makes the list at a very respectable number 2...

steve hillage - octave doctors (mp3)

a lovely beach-kissed balearic instrumenal for a rare sunny day here in manchester, this is taken from steve hillage's 1977 album 'motivation radio'. what starts off like a cosmic excursion into nick drake's 'joey' continues to build with multiple layers of echo and guitar licks into a psychedelic haze - fans of pyramid-era alan parsons could do well with checking this shit out ...

hillage has a pretty interested phoenix-from-the-flames story - he dissapeared for a few years in the 80s, but on hearing one of this tracks in a chill out room of a london club he got talking to the dj, who happened to be dr. alex paterson from the orb. they collaborated on a few pieces, and on the back of this hillage came back to the fore as a sough-after producer, having a hand in producing the charlatans self-titled album, as well as twiddling the knobs for three albums from scotch-rockers breakfast-clubbers simple minds. hillage was responsible for their blinding track 'theme from great cities', which i'm sure you'll agree is quite the claim to fame!

the aliens - setting sun (mp3)

regular readers will know that as well as blethering on about silly records here in our little corner of the internet, we also run a little saturday shindig down here in manchester. long-term regular readers (yes, that's both of you) will also be aware that this blog was originally set up with the purpose of informing would-be visitors of our night on the sort of thing we like to play ...

having strayed so far from our original remit (with, i'm sure you'll agree, quite charming results) today's track is a return to our old ways, with a record that we just can't get enough of playing ... there's a lot of beta band affection within common's massive management-heavy hierarchy, so if anything beta related always goes down a storm, you could well call this the type five hurricane. we love it!

tiffany evans - girl gone wild (mp3)

this blog is fast turning into a timbaland love-fest, but that's pretty indicative of the music scene in general right now - everything mr. mosely touches turns to gold, and he shows no signs of taking his foot off the pedal or following any kind of rules but his own. just one thing, tim - unless you're making some funny little beat noises, please step away from that microphone!

this ode to taking your clothes off for beads comes from new soul superstar tiffany evans, and is backed by a thickset of beats and snaps that come down like a dense, heavy fog, from which there might be no escape except by krumping your way out. this track proves three things - firstly, timbaland is still so-hot-right-now. next is how serious his desire is to work with the best new talents ("everyone wants to work with the big new producer or the hot new singer. the key is to find them before they're hot", the observer). and last up is that, against all odds, it actually is possible for an ex-american idol (nee pop idol) star to release a good record - and that's the shit that really blows my mind.

moussa doumbia - mokholou (mp3)

things are a bit hectic over here at the moment, so apologies for the lack of blogging, but i shall endevour to make up for it with this cheeky piece of malian magic.

moussa doumbia was an ivorian born sax player turned writer who is one of the most overlooked african musicians, easily with the same talent as the world famous fela kuti and the legendary mulatu. whereas african musicians of a similar ilk have been experiencing new found popularity (most noteably the ghanian ebo taylor and k.frimpong, due to the soundway ghand soundz compilations) it has taken until the recent mini lp re-issue of some of his finest work for doumbia to be recognised.

"mokholou" is a killer 70s afro-funk dancer, full of energy and big tune for the dancefloor, easily the choice cut from the lp "keleya" released on French imprint, Oriki. awesome chanting and driving riffs make this sound oh so big on a proper system.

it's good to see guys like this getting legitimate re-issues and finally getting credit for their work... like we always say, if you like it, go buy it.

ulrich schnauss - monday - paracetamol (mp3)

it may be a clear-headed wednesday but the song in my head when i woke up this morning was ulrich schnauss's epic 'monday - paracetamol'. this is a huge improvement over recent offenders 'itchycoo park' (the scary thing is i don't know if it was the small faces version or m-people's!) and, inexplicably, ini kamoze's 'here comes the hotstepper' (i honestly have no idea, no, really, i don't), and is probably due in no small part to the fact that i stuck it on a compilation i made for someone yesterday - and you can all stop that sniggering right now!

the schnauzer, as he's affectionately referred to around these parts, released new album 'goodbye' the other week. as an object lesson in electronic shoegazing it's definitely more-of-the-same but we don't think that's such a bad thing.

the mighty bop feat. ejm - freestyle linguistique (the mix) (mp3)

a super quick post today courtesy of french trio christophe lefriant, alain ho & ejm - we just love the french on here right now...

requiring some soothing sounds for a lazy sunday afternoon, i came across this mighty bop release. not digged this out for way too long, not only did it soothe my hangover, it brought back some fond memories. released on yellow productions, this is a serious slice of french trip-hop circa 1995...

fujiya + miyagi - cassettesingle (mp3)

(thank god for job club computer classes or this would've been a very quiet week on the beef blog)

unfortunately i can't post either of the 2 new tracks from this week's new 7" from the krautrock inflected punk-funk (or is that punk-funk inflected krautrock) beef blog poster-boys fujiya + miyagi because, firstly, my vinyl to slaptop setup makes everything sound like a 1920's radio broadcast, and, secondly, my copy is 'dished' (chris' official new term he's learnt this week) so one channel's a bit noisy anyway - apparently it's a common problem with regal 7"s and i've just realised i've had two separate conversations this week about them also having 'tight holes' with nary even the hint of an inuendous smirk from either party - have i really got to the point where records come before smutty giggles?!

this therefore gives me an uncharacteristically non-tenuous reason to post something from their fantastic-album-which-is-really-just-all-three-of-their-ace-10-inches + a-couple-of-extras-for-good-measure-but-that's-by-no-means-a-bad-thing 'transparent things'.

and who can fail to love anyone who can call their new b-side 'one trick pony' and who also writes songs with lyrics about that most sacred of teenage rites-of-passage that is randomly finding a pile of porn in a wooded area.

and yes, they are indeed named after mr miyagi, as well as an old fujiya record player. and yes i am feeling unbelievably pleased with myself about how many levels this post's pun title works on.

la belle epoque - miss broadway (mp3)

herman's rocket - space woman (mp3)

picked up 'miss hollywood' earlier today from my local cancer research boutique. my la belle epoque knowledge is pretty minimal - it means 'the beautiful era' in french - but any sleeve that has the words 'discoteca' on the front will always grab my attention...

released in 1977, its a mid tempo disco affair with husky vocals, violin freak outs and a chugging bass line. one thing that did come to mind though, it sounds suspiciously like 'space woman' by herman's rocket circa 1978...

herman's rocket were an italian space disco outfit, produced by j.p massiera. most of you will probably know 'space woman' after it appeared under the venus gang guise on one of those cosmic dancer bootlegs. on their galactic soul lp, they did a rip off version of the o jays 'for the love of money' - another one maybe. you decide...

pierre dalmon - jungle melody (mp3)

due to a severe lack of activity over the last few days, i thought i had better rectify this with a quick track...

'jungle melody' is a smooth jazz flute tune courtesy of your main man pierre dalmon. appearing on his self titled lp from 1977, monsieur dalmon calls in pierre-alain dahan for the production and drumming duties - otherwise known for his appearances in arpadys, the peppers and voyage...

nonostar - day follows night (mp3)

mixing a few of our current loves - balearic and bleeps - here's something from the on-form and on-fire earsugar jukebox seven inch collection. this is some chillin-out-maxin-relaxin-all-cool german electronica from nonostar, invoking the spirit of dabrye or a re-imagining of a lost track from portishead's 'dummy'.

the earsugar jukebox top friends list include both carl craig and yo la tengo, which gives you a little insight into the breadth of their influences, and their label was the first place you may have heard the beef favourite and summer stormer 'broaden new sound' from nobody and the mystic chords of memory (whaddya mean you haven't heard it? shame on you - go buy it here right now!).

come one, come all...

brian olive - seeme mariona (mp3)

a blast from the past, from the sounds of tomorrow - this comes off like pop levi with amy winehouse's backing band, releasing a nuggets homage on behalf of the chicago transit authority ... ex-greenhornes guitarist and current soledad brother, this is brian rocking out on a recent killer seven inch on the trendy london based fitzrovian phonographic label. those guys are so nice - you get a free badge with every release to boot!

rob - de la musique (mp3)

rob - power glove (mp3)

in general people seem to enjoy giving the french a hard time. okay, so they're not particularly good when it comes to wars and whatnot but, whilst they may be happy to put up with occupying forces, they would never put up with bad food, bad drink, bad tailoring or bad left-field pop music and i know i'm not the only beef blogger who would say that they've probably got their priorities right.

i think it's pretty well known that i'm a fan of pretty-much all things french. yep, i love our gallic friends nearly as much as i love ranting about stuff and so it should come as no surprise that the likes of air, daft punk and phoenix are never too far away from the ghettoblaster* chez stevo.

i'm sure you've all heard enough of the usual suspects but i want to introduce you to a criminally overlooked member of the heavy artillery in the much mooted french invasion, see if you can guess who he is from these clues: he's best-friends with seb tellier (he even wrote a song about him); he plays live keyboards for phoenix and he probably goes for tea at daft punk's house and looks after air's cat when they go on tour. yes, you've guessed it, it's rob, maker of the finest prog pop this side of that side of the channel.

okay, i'll admit it, i only discovered him and his seven year old 'don't kill rob' album about a year ago thanks to the national treasure that is ash kennerley's record collection, so unfortunately i haven't even the flimsiest of excuses to chastise the lot of you for failing to give the chap the recognition he deserves.

i've posted the album's fantastic opener 'de la musique' as well as the excellently named 'power glove' that follows it. they are probably my two favourites from 'don't kill rob' and also between them they rather handily offer a pretty good idea of what the album is like as a whole - ie fantastic keyboards, an awesome guitar sound that could have come from anywhere in the last five decades and some finely crafted, and damnably catchy pop hooks.

he could also teach kev and scholes a thing or two about facial grooming.

* used quite literally to 'blast the ghetto'.

yeah, yeah, i'm still working on that bleepy music post.

the micronauts - the jag (mp3)

on inspection of the fantastic cosmic disco website, i came across a fairly recent interview with mr monier of the micronauts. (actually, thinking about it, maybe 'the micronaut' is a little more apt, especially since george issakidis departed back in 2000. anyway, that's a mere technicality, and no one likes to get involved with them) - back to the music...

'the jag', in my humble opinion, was one of the tunes of the late 90's. its what you might call a 'disco sampling, electro bleeping, sweat inducing, eyes closed, heads down and rave your tits off kind of a tune' (did i just say that?!). anyway, it's so good in fact, it almost makes me want to hold aloft one of those shitty 'choon' signs that were all the rage back in those day (i said almost)...

according to my sources, 'the jag' is based around joyce sims' version of (you make me feel like a) natural woman. a job well done i'd say. apparently mr micronaut has more work in the pipeline, more of this please...

spacepimp - k9-law (mp3)

doctor rockit - tape measure (mp3)

jedi knights - may the funk be with you (mp3)

clatterbox - montis (mp3)

after digging out those nova nova tracks yesterday, i was overcome by a sudden bout of nostalgia. so, as a wave of inspiration hit me, i decided to look that little bit deeper and see what other musical gems were collecting dust. after a very brief peruse of my nu-skool breaks collection (ear plugs please), i thankfully, and quite hastily came across some early releases on clear…

clear was somewhat of a influential label in the mid to late 90’s, being credited with starting the ‘nu-electro’ faction. the label released many interesting and important releases, but more importantly helped to raise the profile of some well known artists. along with many others, the clear back catalogue includes the autechre affiliated gescom, the doctor rockit disguised matthew herbert, the tom middleton/mark pritchard inspired jedi knights, and a pre metro area morgan geist…

unfortunately, clear ceased to exist a couple of years ago, so as a homage to some of their best, and my favourite releases, here is a couple of tracks…

first up is the spaced out, future-sonic sounds of ‘k9-law’. produced by spacepimp, this was released on one of those super rare clear vinyl 12”s back in 1995, and is possibly my favourite release…

second up is ‘tape measure’ by doctor rockit. this is a wonderful example of matthew herberts musical diversity as he drops some seriously moody, dark electronica akin to an early autechre release. available on the ‘d for doctor ep’…

third up is the jedi knights monster of a record, ‘may the funk be with you’. again on one of those super rare clear 12”s, this brings back fond memories of a radio 1 essential mix by the chemical brothers - or was it the other track. either way, this is a top record, breakbeat electro at its finest…

fourth up is the short but sweet ‘montis’ by clatterbox. i think this is what they used to call in the mid 90’s “future funk” - whatever it’s called, it’s not 'arf good. available on their long since deleted, self titled lp from 1995…

we're quite proud of the many strings to our muscial bow here at bff, what with those horses for courses decreeing that we can all have different things we love. but once in a while, the stars align and we can all agree one something that is unarguably brilliant. this is where our new, and soon-to-be-world-renowned, feature comes in - "group hug" - where we'll all pick our favourite record from a given artist, label, movement or something else entirely, and each have a bit of a scribble on why we love it so much. so we christen this maiden voyage with one of the all-time greatest artists fresh from her return-to-form, scando-minx björk. so without further ado ...

björk - foot soldier (mp3)

ryan says: picking one björk tune took me ages to do and included me changing my choice a zillion times! when you sit down and start listening, you realise just how much incredible - and often challenging - music this genius has made.

and by genius, i actually mean genius. in today’s major music industry it is very rare that something with incredible talent gets the commercial success that they deserve. björk is a rare exception. i got reminded of this when making my choice for this little special. so, in the end, my decision was ‘foot soldier’, an incredible piece of music hidden away on the ‘hidden place’ ep (no pun intended!). the reason for my choice was because it is one of my favourite björk tunes and that. is. that.

björk - joga (mp3)

mark says: picking a björk favourite record is no easy task and as kev will probably agree, writing about said track has proved even harder. my method of selection was somewhat technical - it involved picking my favourite album (i used the same method), close my eyes, point at the tracklisting and voilla, there it is. so 'joga' was the chosen one, and to be quite honest i am quite glad it is, it was probably my favourite after all (damn my indecisiveness). this really tugs on the heart strings does this one, it almost makes me want to burst into tears (in a good way of course)...

björk - venus as a boy (mp3)

rob says: from the ridiculously sparse opening hypno-drums and that nellee hooper bassline so coveted by mr. timbaland (according to the icelandic pixie) you know you are onto something magical with this early solo single from 1993. so good is this track, it even reached the lofty heights of number 29 in uk pop charts - and that's a sure fire indicator of a great song with ambition to transcend beard-strokers. there is a vague memory of seeing this on top of the pops, aged 11, flummoxed by this odd voice and odd sound yet, like all fine things, this just grows and grows and grows on you.

a song about love - and the potential of one 'boy' in particular armed with his elusive sexually insinuating sense of humour - 'venus' rides its digital almost-reggae yet thoroughly eastern-tinged' rhythm off into the hearts of everyone who is lucky enough to hear it.

björk - all is full of love (video version) (mp3)

chris says: hmmm, pick my favourite björk track. that's like asking me to pick my favourite sexual position: it all depends on, well, lots of things.

so, i thought for a bit, had a listen, thought some more, had another listen (and made a brew), listened to some other stuff, thought a bit more, listened again (and made a rhubarb crumble - hurry whilst it's at its best as the rhubarb season's pretty short) and in the end decided that there really was no point in resisting and have gone for the one that really grabbed me by the balls the first time i heard it. it's the one that made me go back and listen with fresh ears and a more open mind to everything else she'd done before. it's the one that made me fall in love with björk: or maybe it was just those sexy white robots.

sugarcubes - birthday (mp3)

neil says: to pick a favourite track from björk is well near impossible as her career has produced so many great and unexpected moments. however, one track for me stands out above all others and that is the first release from the sugarcubes - 'birthday' - and 20 years later, i still remember hearing it for the first time on radio and rushing to the record shop next morning to track down this extraordinary voice. someone should remix it again ... james holden or rhythm and sound maybe?

björk - one day (mp3)

kev says: ahh, the grand old duke of björk. she may not have had ten thousand men, but i've probably listened to her serenade me somewhere in that quantity. it's become quite a joke when people get into my car, her familiar soothing voice is always in the background. i squished all her albums onto an mp3-cd, and it's probably lodged in the my car stereo 80% of the time, with different albums able to match almost any mood. my choice is from her debut (the cunningly titled 'debut'), and shows how perfect a time the album came - a hypnotic bassline that echoes the nu groove sound coming out of new york from years previous, and indian rhythms foreshadowing the universally loved 'leftism', which followed in it's wake. please björk, hook up with neelee hooper again!

orbital - the girl with the sun in her head (mp3)

a long title for a short post about a long track.

there's not enough bleepy music on here if you ask me. mr scholes posting the awesomely majestic other people place tracks can only let us off the hook for so long so, whilst i have a good rummage through my warp and warp-like collection, here's the veritable hugh fearnley-whittingstall of a track that opens orbital's 'insides' album (it was recorded using an entirely solar-powered recording studio).

this is for me by far their finest moment, and i really couldn't resist posting it with that title.

nova nova - aleph (mp3)

nova nova - djgg (mp3)

todays post is inspired by a fairly recent, if somewhat lucid conversation, with one of our more mysterious commentators - mr don bridges. on a somewhat 'more balearic than usual' evening in common bar, we got on to the topic of the french production duo nova nova - aka marc durif & michel gravil. now these guys have been going since the early 90's, being marked in some quarters as pioneers of the french electronic/ambient/techno scene. after meeting at school in the near tropical surroundings of nice, in southern france, they want on to release numerous singles and an album for laurent garniers f-comm label...

anyway, not sure what these guys are up to now a days, but i thought i would dig out a couple of my favourite tunes. first up is 'aleph' from the 1994 'maetaΦysic ep', and second up is the full length 11 minute version of 'djgg', off the 1995 'nova nova ep'. the last i heard of these two was the release of the memories lp back in 2004, which was basically a re-rub of all their old tunes - two of which are available here...

eddie kendricks - goin' up in smoke (mp3)

after posting my last blog i had a scan down and realised that no-one has put a smoking related blog up yet... and i pretty much had my money on kev doing one!

so... i thought i'd post a little tribute to the thing that some of us love, and the rest of us hate: smoking.

i'm actually in favour of the ban, despite being a smoker, but it can only be a good thing, right?

however, it can not/ will not/ is not better than this true classic from the legendary eddie kendricks. brilliant soul action on the flip to 'girl you need a change of mind', another kendricks classic. in fact, i played it last night at bff!

anyways, that's it for smoking in public places. it's gonna be tough, but when we've got tunes like this, none of us can really complain, can we?

beat konducta - masala (mp3)

oh yes, the beat konducta is back, hotter than ever!

next week sees the release of madlib's 'beat konducta in india' album, featuring the trademark minute-n-a-arf to two minute long beats with a constant theme. last time it was movies, this time it's india.

this track, 'masala' is taken from that very album and is a real teaser as to what the rest sounds like.

enjoy!

the beach boys - sloop john b (mp3)

stevie nicks - bella donna (mp3)

after a cracking night's sleep i woke up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and inexplicably humming the beach boys' 'sloop john b'. since then i've been busting-out the housework to the prime slice of coke-rock that is stevie nicks' 'bella donna' (bought for 'edge of seventeen' after a mountain of one but i have to say that the title track's been doing something special to me).

what can i say; i got out of bed on the right side and everything's smelling of roses in stevo's world (i don't even think a chance encounter with keith allen and chris moyles could annoy me today - i know!) and i thought it was definitely worth documenting this most rare of occasions.

don't worry, it won't last.